Air circulating apparatus



June 25, 1935. F. J. DAY

AIR CIRCULATING APPARATUS Filed April 24, 1935 INVENTOR. FRED J. DAY

ATTRN Patented June 25, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

The present invention relates to an attachment for a fan housing whereby the air currents created by the fan are directed therefrom in definite directional paths and caused to spread over a certain predetermined area.

More particularly the invention relates to a novel louver, which may or may not be made an integral part of the air circulating unit, and wherein the slats or louver plates are made adjustable and their slope regulatable to accommodate the products and areas over which it is desired to direct the air currents andspread the air streams emanating from the fan.

An important object of the invention is to provide, in a device of the above character, improved means which are peculiarly adapted for use on portable air circulating units used inside of loaded refrigerator cars such as described in Patent #18,?55 reissued to me February 28, 1933, such units being preferably located adjacent the bunkers which are filled with ice.

In the absence of these louvers air circulating machines throw the air directly across the top of the load in the cars and the major part of the 25 air circulation is caused to go thru the false floor in the car and back to the bunkers thru the open space in the center of the car and load as a result of the bracing which holds the load in place.

The result is that the fruit at or near the center of the car becomes the coldest, by reason of the major portion of the circulation of cold air naturally flowing along the channel of least resistance. Therefore there is not produced the proper and even flow of cold air thru the middle of the load at each end portion of the car, as well as a circulation of cold air thru the load itself.

By reason of the detachable louver provided by this invention being applicable to each portable air circulating unit placed in the car, an important object is attained in the proper adjustment of the louver boards so that the air is distributed evenly thru all parts of the load and thereby is secured an even temperature in each and every box or package that is contained in the load of the car.

It is therefore an important object of the invention to improve in general upon the features outlined in the reissue patent mentioned supra.

A still further object of the invention is to improve upon the manner in which the air circulating unit is supported and the way in which the supporting means is applied to the car.

55 Heretofore, in many cases, expensive paraphemalia has been employed and the cost of transporting and applying the same has resulted in some disadvantages which have now been cured thru the use of the present invention. The cheapness, simplicity and ease of application of the invention have contributed to its adaption 5 and to supplanting of the present method throughout many cities where my other methods have been formerly in use.

Facts contributing to the necessity for adequately precooling cars and treating perishable products incident to their loading and shipping have been repeatedly set forth in Patents #1,- 811,529, #1,805,809, #1,811,496 already issued to me, and also in my pending application filed November 30, 1931, Serial No. 578,056, and hence will not be reiterated here.

Still further objects, features and advantages will hereinafter appear and will be pointed out in part when viewed in the light of the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, which illustrates what is at present deemed to be a preferred embodiment and furnish an illustrative example whereby the invention may be put into use.

The brief description of said drawing is as follows:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal cross sectional elevational view taken thru a standard refrigerator car showing my improved apparatus applied thereto. 30

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view taken transversely of the car and shows on an enlarged scale the apparatus in detail and the manner in which it is applied to the car.

Fig. 3 is a view taken on line 33 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is a view of the supporting means, some parts of which are broken away to disclose interior construction.

Referring in detail to the drawing, 5 indicates the body of the car, which in the present instance, is a standard refrigerator car provided with ice bunkers ii at the ends thereof. The numeral 1 indicates the usual removable steel ice grate bars at the bottoms of the bunkers which support the ice 8. At the top and bottom of the bunkers are the usual screened apertures 9 and I0 opening therefrom into the car proper.

In the top opening 9 is installed the air circulating unit i I having attached thereto the novel louver 12. The air circulating unit, comprising the fan I3, the motor l4, and its housing I5, is supported against the screened opening 9 and the ceiling of the car by means of a spanning device IB. Said device comprises a pipe ll, which is made shorter than the width of a standard car and has welded in one of its ends a threaded nut l8 into which is screwed a jack-screw l9 which is extensible to complete the span of the car.

Upon a shaft portion 20 of the jack-screw is mounted a freely rotatable nut or head 29 provided with spikes 22, which pierce the tongue and groove siding of the car when the jack-screw is operated, in conjunction with the pipe I], to complete the span of the car.

A set collar 23 is provided to hold the nut 2| in place. There is also provided on the other end of the pipe I1, a spur fastener 24, welded to the pipe and which pierces the tongue and groove siding on the opposite side of the car when the jack-screw I9 is operated as aforesaid.

Since the tongue and groove siding of these types of cars is usually of a soft character of wood, its fibers easily yield to the pressure of the spikes when pressed thereinto and upon removal, slight, if any defacement of the car siding is ever noticeable.

There is an adjustable bracket 25 fastened to the underside of the motor housing which is provided with a curved flange 26 partly encircling the pipe l1, yet permitting of the detachment of the spanning device therefrom. The hookshaped or shouldered bracket thus provided beneath the air-circulating unit prevents the housing l5 of said unit from moving outwardly from the air-outlet portion of the ice-bunker, while the spanning device supports the weight of said unit.

The motors which operate the fans in the ends of the car are energized by means of current supplied thru leads 26 and 2'! plugged into them, a conventional plug-in socket 28 being shown in Fig. 2. Said leads branch from a common conduit 29 which is directed over the top of the door and down to a switch control box at, current being supplied to the switch box from any convenient source not shown.

The louver l2, comprises a circumferential skeleton frame having peripheral bands 3i and 32 connected together by ribs 33.

The band 3! comprises a split hoop the ends ofwhich are fastened together by means of a bolt 3G. The band 3i engages with a circumferential bead 35 extending around the fan housing, by means of which the louver is held intact with the housing.

Extending athwartwise the louver l2 are a plurality of spaced horizontal parallel rods 36 which are journalled in the ribs 33. The ends of said rods are threaded and Wing nuts 37 are screwed on to them whereby the adjustability of the rods is regulated in their journals. There is fastened to the rods thus provided deflector louver plates which control the direction of the breeze emanating from the fan. The intermediate louver plates 38 are preferably flared or bowed throughout a portion of their lateral extent so as not to only direct the current forwardly but also downwardly at the sides of the car. Some of said plates extend part way into the skeleton frame.

The bottom plate 39 is curved transversely of its length and the top board 410 is preferably made flat. Both these plates are connected to the rods which support them along one of their side edges, while the intermediate plates are fastened to their supporting rods at points spaced away from their side edges. The mounting of the intermediate plates in the manner stated permits a portion of the plate to extend into the skeleton housing to divert downwardly part of the air stream which would otherwise pass above them. Owing to the downwardly directed and backwardly inclined character of the decidedly curved bottom louver plate 39, this plate directs the air striking it downwardly and backwardly. The backward movement of the air passing over it is augmented by reason of said plate 39 being most deeply curved thruout its lower edge portion.

Each of the louver plates is so positioned that with one adjustment the load in half the car can be completely enveloped in streams of air emanating from the fan. With a fan in each end of the car a reduced temperature in the car is thus quickly and efficiently attained.

In loading a car the crates M are spaced longitudinally apart as shown in Fig. 1. The same spacing is also maintained transversely of the car. The bracing d2 which braces the crates, necessitates an opening being left near the center of. the car.

The air circulating units together with the louvers may be installed in the car, either before or after the car has been loaded. In hot sections of the country, sometimes the interior of the car is precooled with the cool outside night air, entrained thru the hatch of the bunker preparatory to loading.

That portion of the screened-in top opening which is not covered by the fan housing is covered with canvas it tacked to the bunker wall on either side of the housing.

When the installing of the units has been completed the louver plates or deflectors are set and so positioned that the air being exhausted from the bunker will travel in the paths indicated diagrammatically by the arrows.

The top plate of the louver directs the warm foul air, which usually occupies the top of the car, toward the space at the center where the bracing occurs. At the latter point the turbulence of the air causes a downward fiow thereof, and it then passes back under the floor to the bunkers where it is washed before being again entrained into the car by the fan. The subjacent plates then direct freshly washed air from the bunkers over the crates and down thru the intervening spaces whence it is in turn reconducted to the bunkers. The air currents will diverge toward the sides of the car while being directed downwardly.

Thus it will be seen no really foul air can contaminate the load in the crates. It will also be obvious from the directional paths of the air streams that they cover all portions of the load spreading a blanket of fresh air over its entire area.

As soon as the air circulating units are in readiness to be operated the car doors are closed and the switch in the switchbox is thrown to operate the motors and in turn rotate the fans. The fans may be reversed to first exhaust air from the interior of the car in order to enlarge the ice lanes in the bunkers thru which the air may later be drawn when it is exhausted from the bunker into the car. As indicated by the arrows in the right and left hand portions of Fig. 1, portions of the air are deflected downwardly and backwardly to strike diagonally against the front walls of the ice bunkers thence passing down through the underlying end portions of the contents of the car.

Altho the present embodiment discloses a circular louver, it is considered within the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed to vary the design of the louver to includestill other shapes as may best adapt the apparatus for distribution of the air for the purposes intended.

I claim:

I. In a refrigerator car, an air circulating unit comprising a casing having a fan therein, means to support said unit on the wall of the ice bunker of said car to direct the upper portion of the air current from said fan longitudinally of said car, there being an air space immediately below said unit and adjacent to the wall of the ice bunker, and a series of vertically arranged adjustable air deflector plates carried by the front portion of said unit, said deflector plates being located between the bunker wall and the central portion of the car, the lowest plate of said series havin its lower portion inclined rearwardly toward the bunker wall and being adjustable to a position wherein it directs backwardly under said unit and diagonally against said wall the lower portion of the air current from said fan.

2. In means for circulating air in a refrigerator car, a fan unit consisting of a housing including a motor and a fan propelled by said motor, extensible spanning means engageable with the sides of said car to detachably support said fan unit with clearance immediately therebeneath, a louver including adjustable deflector plates attached to said housing, said fan unit being mounted against the wall of the ice bunker with said deflector plates located between the bunker wall and the central portion of the car, the lower portion of the lowest plate being inclined rearwardly toward the bunker wall to deflect a portion of the air delivered by said fan backwardly into said clearance, the curvature of said plate being greatest thruout its lower edge portion.

3. Means for circulating air in a refrigerator car comprising a fan unit consisting of a housing including a motor and a fan propelled by saidmotor, a louver including adjustable deflector plates attached to said housing, extensible spanning means engageable with the sides of said car to detachably support said fan unit against the wall of the ice bunker of the car with clearance immediately beneath said housing, said deflector plates being located between the bunker wall and the central portion of the car, the lower portion of the lowest plate being inclined rearwardly toward the bunker wall to deflect a portion of the air delivered by said fan backwardly into said clearance.

FRED J. DAY. 

